After the catastrophic failure of the Orbital Science Corp.'s Antares rocket shortly after liftoff on Tuesday, Oct. 28, the Wallops Incident Response Team have completed an initial assessment. While it will take some time before they fully understand what happened, they do have some ideas as to what caused the failure.

Shortly after liftoff, the Antares rocket exploded. Carrying more than 5,000 pounds worth of scientific instruments, food and other supplies for the astronauts aboard the space station, the rocket actually was destroyed after an operator hit a self-destruct button. It was apparent that there were pr...